Baseball walks off series finale for series win over Waldorf on Monday

Benedictine Baseball continued their homestead on Monday, wrapping up their four-game series with Waldorf University. After sweeping the Warriors 6-4 and 7-1 on Sunday, the Ravens earned the series with a split on Monday. After falling 9-8 in game one on Monday, the Ravens walked off the series with a 5-4 win in the series finale.

Game 1: Benedictine 6, Waldorf 4.
Behind a solid start on the hill from Lance Bolles, Benedictine opened the series with a 2-run win. Bolles threw the first five innings, giving up 3 runs off 6 hits before Jackson Sarver closed the door on the Warriors, throwing the final two innings in relief. Sarver finished with 5 strikeouts while allowing one run off 3 hits to earn the save.

At the plate, the Ravens jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings. Bryan Haas led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run, followed by a double from Jack Minnis in the bottom of the second that scored Jack Harpole. Ashton Neumann connected on a 3-run home run in the third inning to stake the Ravens to their lead. 

After the Warriors scored two runs on a home run of their own, Hunter Moffett doubled in Rhrett Spell to give the Ravens a 6-3 lead that was enough for Sarver to preserve the win for Bolles.

Harpole added a triple to give the Ravens 4 extra-base hits out of their total of 8. Haas, Harpole, and Spell also finished with two hits at the plate.

Game 2: Benedictine 7, Waldorf 1.
Ben DeLaForest allowed a run off three hits over six innings as he kept the Warriors in check at the plate in game two of the series., He finished with 6 strikeouts to pick up the win before Ben Bowman completed the game, throwing the final inning.

The Ravens jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Moffet doubled in the first run before Harpole singled in two more.  Moffet finished the game with a pair of doubles while Minnis added a triple. Haas joined Moffet with two hits as the Ravens finished with a total of 7.

Game 3: Waldorf 9, Benedictine 8.
Waldorf scored all nine runs in the first two innings en route to the win.

Andrew Baier suffered the loss, giving up one earned run over an inning of work. Paper Beattie threw a total of three innings as the first reliever, allowing 5 runs off three hits. 

Evan DeMint and Matthew Gephardt combined to throw the final three innings, allowing just one hit.

Spell got the Ravens scoring started with a two-run double in the second, followed by an RBI double from Moffet. Moffet added another RBI double in the fourth, followed by a Neuman RBI single and an RBI double from Dominic Ferrari. Ferrari added a solo home run in the seventh before Evan Sykes single in Harpole, but the rally ended on a flout to give the Warriors the win.

Moffet, Ferrari, Harpole, and Spell finished the game with 2 hits each as the Ravens finished with 10 total hits.

Game 4: Benedictine 5, Waldorf 4
With the sun setting, the umpires determined that the series finale would end after six innings. 

After Benedictine scored four runs in the third inning to tie the game at 4-4, they headed into the final inning looking for the series win. Jaden Zimmerman stepped to the plate, pinch-hitting for Sykes, and hit a solo home run to left field off Warrior reliever Trevor Brace to send the Ravens into the night with a one-run win.

Sarver earned the win in relief of Dominic Susanka and Carson Kasl. Susanka got the start and went the first one and one-third innings before Kasl threw the next two innings. Susanka allowed three runs off one hit with three strikeouts while Kasl finished gave up on an unearned run off one hit with three strikeouts. Sarver threw the final two and two-thirds innings, holding the Warriors to no hits while striking out three.

Haas was the only Raven with a two-hit game at the plate, going 2 for 2. 

Benedictine hosts a four-game series against Dordt University, starting at Noon on Friday before wrapping up at Noon on Saturday on Laughlin Field at Olsen Stadium.